Unmanned X-47B Lands On Aircraft Carrier

Earlier this year, we talked about how an unmanned X-47B achieved its first successful landing (although the aircraft first took to flight in 2011), and further testing has managed to see the X-47B achieve yet another milestone – that is, to land on a moving ship. This is no mean task especially when you do not have a pilot on-board, but it still managed to accomplished that particular task when it managed to land successfully on the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier. Not only that, it also did a little victory lap by taking off from the aircraft carrier via catapult only to make yet another landmark landing successfully.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, said, “It isn’t very often you get a glimpse of the future. Today, those of us aboard USS George H.W. Bush got that chance as we witnessed the X-47B make its first ever arrested landing aboard an aircraft carrier. The operational unmanned aircraft soon to be developed have the opportunity to radically change the way presence and combat power are delivered from our aircraft carriers.”

Would this mark a new era in the battlefield, and our Top Gun pilots can now have it easy since they no longer have to be in an actual cockpit? [Press Release]